Chapter Twelve

He imagined he looked like a ballerina, the way he was walking. Trying to tip-toe, trying to be soundless, as he skulked down the winding hallways. It wasn't an image he much fancied. Still, looking like a tit was better than being caught, Sebastian supposed.

The footsteps that had prompted his separation from the others had trailed him for far too long, getting uncomfortably close at times, but had finally faded away. He was all eyes and ears, unwilling to allow himself to be caught off guard again. One time was bad enough.

He wished he had his watch. Sure, it wouldn't be much use in the grand scheme of things, but he really wanted to know just how long he had been wandering the halls of the Asylum alone, how long until sunrise, how long Agni and Ciel had had to be ripping each others throats out.

He needed to find them – it felt like hours had passed since he'd wrestled Ciel's hands off Agni's throat – but he couldn't risk backtracking. The chances that he'd come across his earlier pursuer were far too high. Besides, this whole thing was about finding Finny, right? The last thing he needed was to be playing babysitter to the bickering children during probably the only shot he had to search the place.

Keycard warm in his palm from how long he'd been holding it, Sebastian passed it over the pad of yet another electronically locked door. As with the two floors worth of rooms before it, Room 217 was empty.

Completely empty, in fact. No tables, no chairs, no cabinets, nothing. Two floors of rooms entirely unused. Wasteful, yes, but also a little eerie. Who'd have thought that rooms full of nothing would send a chill down one's spine? Certainly not Sebastian, yet the more rooms he found that were so neglected the dust on the surfaces was essentially skin, the more unnerved he found himself becoming.

The place felt dead.

Sebastian shook the sombre thought away, locking the room and continuing towards the next one. He was being melodramatic. It was such a large building, of course there were going to be empty rooms. It was just getting to him, the situation, the place, the people. If the Sebastian from before St. Victoria's could see him now, getting the creeps from a bare room, he would have laughed.

Still, with every empty room he found, that was one more failure. That little voice in the back of his head was gaining volume as his hope diminished – he's not even in the Institute, he's dead – and shut up became a mantra – he's not even real, you're losing it, Sebby – it was just the place getting to him, that was all.

Gritting his teeth, Sebastian carried on along the hallway. He'd continue looking for Finny for one more floor, but if nothing showed itself, he'd go back and find the others. There was nothing good that could come from the two being alone together, so mistrustful and so on edge. He couldn't shake the image of Ciel's hands around his best friend's neck, the glassy look in his eye and how he didn't even seem to hear Sebastian's attempts to calm him.

Agni had worked at the Institute longer than Sebastian, sure, but that didn't mean he knew Ciel better. Sebastian knew the boy's ticks, at least he liked to think he did, knew when his mood was about to take a turn, and it was that knowledge that Agni sorely needed right then. Agni wouldn't hurt him, not a child, but he'd restrain Ciel if he thought he had to.

And Ciel did not respond well to being restrained.

Agni struggled to close the heavy door as quietly as possible, spinning around as soon as he heard the lock click into place. Even heavier than the door was the glare he was being dealt, surprisingly effective despite technically being only half a glare.

Even from across the room, Agni could see how tense Ciel was, ready to spring into action again. The scratches on his neck stung, just another reminder of how vicious this patient was, and how alone he was with him.

The boy's breaths were coming in wheezes. He wasn't used to running. The last thing they needed was for him to start having an asthma attack then and there.

Agni stepped away from the door, conscious of his silhouette in the glass-panel window, and Ciel darted back further. It was like they were animals circling each other, fangs bared and hackles raised, waiting for the other to make the first move.

That continued for as long as it took Agni to realise he was supposed to be the adult here.

"Look, we're stuck for now, so can we at least be civil with one another?" Forever the pacifist, Agni waved his white flag first.

"Civil? You're the one who attacked me!"

Only for Ciel to snap it in two and throw the pieces back in his face.

Agni flinched, more from the volume of Ciel's voice than the accusation.

"Ssh! Do you want to get caught?" he whispered, "Look, I'm sorry if I hurt you before, but I will not risk you hurting me or Sebastian."

If it was even possible, Ciel's scowl darkened.

"I have no intentions of hurting Sebastian," Agni didn't miss the lack of his name there, "Why are you even here, anyway? You don't want to help Finny-"

Agni liked to think he was a calm, rational man. He'd been told, not always in a complimentary way, that he had the patience of a saint. It was something he liked about himself. However, at the mention of Finny, that well-developed patience may well have never existed.

"You can drop the act now! Sebastian isn't here!" he hissed, and god, he hated how he sounded when he lost his temper. This wasn't him. He didn't shout at children, especially ill children.

Ciel's face slackened, the glare losing its bluster, and he actually looked confused for once. Well, at least for the fraction of a second it took before he realised what Agni was implying. Then he was laughing.

Sincere laughter, from the boy of stone.

Not quiet laughter.

Agni darted forward, his body moving before his brain could register it, with the sole intention of making Ciel quiet. Even he admitted that, given the situation, it wasn't too far a stretch of the imagination to consider his approach an act of aggression.

Not nearly as aggressive as Ciel's reaction, though.

The second Agni had moved, Ciel's laughter had cut off abruptly, like someone had hit the mute button. Faster than Agni had thought he could move, Ciel had launched himself backwards towards the wall. He raised the hand holding the mirror above his head then brought it crashing against the wall. The mirror splintered then smashed, shards of glass falling to the ground. Agni pulled himself to a stop just in time for Ciel to select the largest chunk of glass and brandish it at his stationary chest.

"You dare touch me again and I'll show you why I'm a patient here." They were hardly even words, even growl didn't quite cover the sound coming from the smaller boy's mouth, his lips curled back in a feral snarl. And damn it all, Agni was scared. Actually afraid of this boy so small he could lift him with one hand, so childish he sulked for hours if he didn't get his way, who would happily eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This child who was holding a makeshift knife to his chest and pushing enough that it hurt, a clear enough warning that Agni heeded, stepping back until there was a comfortable distance between them.

Even then, Ciel did not waver, keeping his weapon held high. There was an undeniable smugness in him now, complete certainty that he was in control, just how he liked it.

"So, you think this is all some ploy," his lips curled into a mocking smirk, "Soma really knows how to choose them."

Agni's fear receded in the face of anger.

"Don't you even talk about him, not after the poison you've spread." And again, that horrible voice that he didn't like to recognise as his own.

Agni could see confusion flicker over the boy's face, though he did well to mask it, to keep that control he'd finally attained. Or maybe that little slip was exactly what the boy planned, a subtle way of playing innocent. No, he would not be pulled in, not like Sebastian, by Ciel's carefully crafted lies.

"Poison? What nonsense are you spouting now, you dunce?" Ciel sounded more impatient than anything else.

Agni stopped himself. No, he would not be pulled in like this. He would not play Ciel's little games, losing his already tremulous temper and throwing accusations at the boy, not when they were supposed to be working together. They needed to find Sebastian and the longer they fought between themselves, the further into the building he was going alone.

Time to draw on that infamous saintly patience of his.

"Listen, Ciel... I understand how terrible this place is, I really do, but whatever little escape plan you've conjured up isn't the right way to go about this. Right now, you're sick. Out there, in the real world, you won't last a day. You're here to learn to cope, to learn how best to handle yourself. You'll get out of here when you're better."

As he spoke, Agni watched Ciel's face carefully, could see that the boy was struggling to keep calm and collected, to keep his control. It was that last sentence that snapped him, his face contorting into raw rage, almost sounding on the verge of tears as he cried, "He won't let me get better!"

And Agni wasn't scared of him anymore, feeling nothing but pity for this terrified child in front of him. For all his airs and forced-maturity, that was all Ciel Phantomhive was, all any of the patients at St. Victoria's were; frightened, alone and suffering children.

Composure was nowhere to be found as Ciel struggled to rein himself in, huddling over as though trying to defend against attack, forcing away the treacherous burning behind his eye and the tightness in his throat. His hands pulled to his chest and he didn't even notice that the glass was cutting into his clenched fist, blood streaming down his hands. He needed to get out, there was no air in this room, in this building, and he'd never get out, that man wouldn't let him, he'd be mad forever-

Warm hands covered his own and it was like having cold water thrown over him. Ciel stumbled back, away from the touch and away from the hands, and Agni let him do so. The bloodied glass was no longer in his hold. It was only once Agni had taken it from him that he felt the sting of the gash on his palm, but that burning pain was better than thinking so he focused on it, turned away from Agni's eyes and willed himself to stop it, stop acting like a helpless child, there's work to be done.

What was it Freckles always said when he was getting too worked up? Count back from ten. Ciel never held much stock in such things but he gave it a go, saying the numbers in his mind and climbing down. By the time he reached six, his breathing was getting back to normal, and by four his mind had stopped racing, then he reached zero, and he turned back to face Agni, his poker-faced self.

Agni waited, giving Ciel the control he clearly needed, at least for now.

"I'm not going to hurt Sebastian."

Agni didn't reply, partly because he knew the boy had more to say, mostly because he couldn't reply in a way that wouldn't start another argument.

"If I'm being honest then... yes. I had entertained the idea of using Sebastian as a ticket out of this place. He was new, clearly out of his depth and, as such, painfully easy to manipulate, but... but I know it wouldn't work. Sure, I could get out of here using him, but they'd only hunt me down and bring me back, no doubt punishing me for the trouble to boot. I... I can't imagine anything worse than actually getting out, only to be brought back. "

Ciel fell silent for a while, clearly picturing the abhorrent scenario, the quiet moments drawing on so long that Agni started to wonder whether the conversation was over. Then Ciel shook himself out of the reverie.

"Anyway, it's not me you have to worry about screwing you over. It's the Institute. You don't have to trust me, Agni. I sure as hell don't trust you. Just play along for now. If you do, we may survive the night yet."

He could not and would not trust Ciel. There was just too much against him. If it wasn't Ciel that turned Sebastian against Soma, then who? If it weren't Ciel, then Agni couldn't think of who else Sebastian would so steadfastly believe. Besides, Ciel had hardly built himself up a reputation of being trust worthy over the years. More than any of that, he was patient D18.

There was at least a little truth to the boy's words however. If they didn't start working together, lasting the night uncaught was simply impossible.

"Fine. Truce," Agni reluctantly agreed, to Ciel's relief.

"Good. I know you don't believe me, but there really is a Finny, and he's in trouble. So enough chatter. Let's get moving."

Once Agni had made sure it was safe, the two skulked from the room, both intent on finding their friends.

Finny wasn't here.

As much as Sebastian tried to shake off the unwelcome thought, it kept crawling back, a continuous little whisper at the back of his mind. Unbidden images of mirrored walls and bloodstained blonds accompanied it, and he kept having to remind himself that he'd already checked The Room, that it was just as empty as every other room he'd checked.

The number of rooms he'd seen grew and with it so did the volume of that malicious voice.

He was on the fourth floor now. Even though he'd resolved to go and find the others after the second floor, his feet just kept carrying him onwards, his mind compelling him, just one more room. But one room became two, then four, then an entire floor. Before he knew it, he'd climbed two more staircases and was further away from his companions than ever.

Right. He was going to finish this floor then turn around and go back. That was that.

But what if Finny was in the next room? What if he was feet away and he just turned his back and left, left the helpless boy to die, let them win?

That kind of thinking really wasn't helping the whole common sense thing.

A startlingly loud, high-pitched beep rang out in the hall, and Sebastian froze. Behind him, he heard the fwoosh of a door swinging open.

He was like a deer caught in headlights, waiting to hear those ominous footsteps that would prelude his capture, his failure, his defeat. He waited so long that the burst of adrenalin came and went without use, and he was left shaky. When still nothing happened, Sebastian slowly turned to look behind him.

The door to Room 408 was open wide, the room looking just as empty as it did minutes ago when Sebastian had checked it. His keycard was still clasped in his fist, nowhere near the keypad, ruling out any chances that Sebastian had inadvertently unlocked the door himself.

But the doors could only be opened by the keypad, which was outside the door. The hallway was completely empty, bar Sebastian himself.

Eyes narrowing, Sebastian jolted away from the open door, putting as much space between himself and Room 408 as possible. Still nothing came from the room, no person, no sound, but he wasn't going to just stand there and wait for something to happen.

Sebastian swiped his card against the keypad of a door at the far end of the corridor, still watching Room 408 with apprehension. Eyes never straying from that open doorway, he reached behind him and jiggled the handle.

It wouldn't budge.

More carefully this time, Sebastian passed his keycard over the electronic panel slowly, and jerked the handle roughly down.

Once again, it didn't move an inch.

Unconsciously, he moved like a man walking across a mine field, abandoning that door and trying the one opposite. He wasn't surprised when he yielded the same results; it would not open.

Nor would any of the others he tried.

A light chuckle reached Sebastian's ears and it took a moment before he realised it was his own. This whole thing was so infuriating yet completely hysterical, both at the same time. He was supposed to go through the door to Room 408, wasn't he? That was what he was being told, by whoever was doing this. They were trying to move him like a pawn, this person. No doubt the same person who got him put on the Night Shift right when he needed it.

He couldn't seem to stop the little chuckle, despite trying. Maybe he was hysterical himself. And right when there was no-one around to slap him. Shame, Ciel probably would have enjoyed the job. Hell, even Agni, considering he still bore the bruises from the doorstop.

The thought just made him laugh more. He was actually in a situation where the two people he was depending on the most were two people who would happily slap him silly. And to think, this time last year he was a rising star in the archaeology circles. How things changed.

Shaking his head, Sebastian bit back the laughter that was starting to sound a little manic, even to him. Alright, so someone was playing a game, and clearly he was one of the toys. He couldn't go through any of the doors apart from the door to Room 408. That didn't mean there weren't alternatives.

Turning on his heel, he carried on walking, at what he liked to think was a leisurely pace. He didn't look behind him, even when he heard the sound of a door swinging shut and a lock sliding into place. Finally, he found the staircase, and carried on up to the fifth floor.

"...Did you do that?" Ciel muttered, glancing over at Room 217. Dust billowed from the floor as the door swung inside, getting in his face and making him cough.

"...No," Agni replied sharply, looking at the open doorway like it was Grell in his birthday suit, "My card's in my pocket."

Eye narrowing, Ciel walked on, gesturing the man to follow. When Agni didn't immediately heed his silent order, the boy gritted his teeth and barked, "Move!"

What was the imbecile doing? A situation like this, you didn't wait around to see just which one of the monsters were going to eat your face, you got the hell outta there.

"Wait! Just..." Agni still wasn't moving, staring at Room 217 pensively, and Ciel's already sapped patience with the Orderly diminished that little bit more.

Once more, the boy bit out, "Move."

And once more, Agni didn't listen.

"I think... I think we should go in."

If Ciel hadn't have been so beyond annoyed at this point, he'd have laughed. And he was supposed to be the crazy one.

"You cannot be that stupid. It's clearly a trap!" Ciel snapped, turning his head to see the man's face, to see if he was actually serious. If his expression was anything to go by, he was deathly serious.

"So is this entire situation, Ciel! I mean, come on, what was with Sebastian being put on the Night Shift like this? There's coincidence and then there's that! Look," he became imploring, "We're getting nowhere wandering around like this. For all we know Sebastian has already been caught... I think we should at least try this. It's no more suspicious than anything else that's already happened."

There was probably a shred of logic in there somewhere, but Ciel was in no mood to try finding it.

"You go in there, you go in there alone."

Agni's resolute look faltered.

"...We shouldn't split up."

"No. We shouldn't."

Once again, they were in the same position, both against each other and just waiting for the other to back down. So far, Agni had given in, had been the one to relent for the sake of moving things along. This time, though...

There was just something about being ordered around by this child that didn't sit well with Agni. He was the adult here. He was the member of staff. Surely he was supposed to be the one in the position of power. Yet here they were, and he could see in Ciel's face that certainty that Agni was going to buckle once more, just give in and go along with whatever Ciel chose to do.

It was enough already. He was the adult here. He was the member of staff. He was in control.

Ciel could see that he was fighting a losing battle here. Sometimes there was just no getting through to idiots. Splitting up was the worst possible idea – Ciel didn't even have a keycard, for one thing – but he refused to let himself be controlled, like he was some lab rat in a maze.

Without another word to each other, they both turned and went their separate ways, Agni into Room 217 and Ciel onward down the hall. The boy heard the door swing shut and the lock click into place, and it occurred to him that this was possibly the aim all along.

Now the three of them were all alone. Divided, and all the easier to conquer.